Prosecution witnesses take center stage in second week of Toolan trial

Friday

Jun 15, 2007 at 2:00 AM

By Jason Graziadei I&M Staff Writer

Just days after his crushing break-up with Beth Lochtefeld, a drunk and depressed Thomas Toolan stood on the roof of the New York Athletic Club in Manhattan contemplating suicide.

Toolan’s squash partner Mark Mitchell talked him down from the roof and attempted to sober up his friend with a meal and an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.

It was the last time Mitchell would see his friend until he took the stand yesterday during Toolan’s murder trial in Nantucket Superior Court.

Two days after he considered jumping from the roof of the athletic club, prosecutors say Toolan traveled to Nantucket and killed Lochtefeld by stabbing her 23 times with a knife he purchased at Brant Point Marine. Charged with first degree murder, the second week of Toolan’s trial began Monday as first assistant district attorney Brian Glenny continued building his case against the former Manhattan bank executive.

Mitchell, a marketing consultant from New York who first met Toolan in Central Park, described the events of Oct. 23, 2004, when he said he found Toolan drinking straight vodka in the bar of the athletic club.

“He was in bad shape,” Mitchell said. “He was despondent. I lost track of Tom at the New York Athletic Club. I looked around and found him on the roof, a solarium, 20 floors up. He said he was thinking about jumping.”

Photo by Jim Powers

Toolan friend Mark Mitchell points out the defendant from the stand.

Mitchell said he spent the rest of the day with Toolan, trying to stop him from consuming more alcohol, even demanding that a store clerk not sell Toolan a bottle of vodka.

His testimony stood in stark contrast to that of Bernadette Feeney, a lifelong friend of Toolan who described the first days of his brief romantic relationship with Lochtefeld on Labor Day weekend in 2004. Feeney, of Orange Street, testified yesterday that she introduced the couple at her home, and said their connection was “palpable” and “intense” from the start.

“I thought the two of them might hit if off and I actually said to Beth, ‘I think I’m looking at your future husband.’ She came right over,” Feeney said. “It was palpable. Everyone could feel it. They exchanged phone numbers and from there it just took off.” Feeney, who grew up with Toolan in a Brooklyn apartment building, said, “I still consider Tommy as my younger brother.” His problems with drinking “were a known fact,” Feeney added.

Besides calling Toolan’s former friends to the stand Wednesday, Glenny interviewed a number of Cape Air employees who said they saw a person who fit Toolan’s description at Nantucket Memorial Airport on the day of the murder. Several Rhode Island state troopers who were involved in Toolan’s arrest also testified Wednesday.

Photo by Jim Powers

Daniel Pratt, crime scene supervisor for southern Massachusetts, holds up the blood-stained sweater Beth Lochtefeld was wearing at the time of her death.

Byron Dugdale, a clerk at Brant Point Marine on Washington Street, also took the stand Wednesday and said he sold Toolan a large knife with an orange handle, as well as a scallop knife, just after 11 a.m. the day Lochtefeld was found dead in her Hawthorne Lane cottage. Ashley Brooks, whose family owns Force Five Watersports on Union Street, told jurors that Toolan came into her store asking about scallop knives, but she told him she didn’t sell knives and that he should go to Brant Point Marine.

All of the Nantucket witnesses who took the stand Wednesday identified Toolan as wearing a trench coat and a fedora, items which had already been entered into the record as exhibits by Glenny earlier in the week.

Richard F. Connon, the Superior Court judge presiding over the trial, said Wednesday that he expects both the prosecution and defense will finish presenting evidence and witnesses by next Tuesday, and closing arguments will begin on Wednesday.

Since the jury of 13 women and three men were impaneled after four days of selection last week, Glenny has methodically built his case against Toolan by questioning a large number of witnesses, and offering more than 100 exhibits as evidence. Toolan’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, has challenged little of the evidence and decided not to question many of the witnesses, but his plan is to eventually convince the jury that his client should not be held criminally responsible for the murder because of a mental defect, brought on by alcohol and drugs. More commonly known as the insanity defense, Reddington’s strategy will rely upon mental health experts who will testify later during the trial.

Photo by Jim Powers

Superior Court clerk Patricia R. Church is surrounded by bags of physical evidence as she enters them into the proceedings.

Reddington used his opening statement last week to paint a picture of a man who was not what he seemed. Despite being well-dressed, despite his good looks and successful career, Reddington said Toolan was a man who had consistently battled alcoholism and depression.

Jury views murder scene video

On Tuesday, a silent video of Lochtefeld’s body – positioned face-down on the living-room carpet of her Hawthorne Lane cottage – was shown to the 16 jurors in the courtroom. In one of the bedrooms of the cottage where police believe the assault on Lochtefeld began, the video camera panned from a blood-stained mattress to a night stand, on which the book “1,000 Places to See Before You Die” could be seen, also marked with spots of blood.

The courtroom was silent as the jury watched the video of the murder scene, recorded by state police officer Monty Gilardi, which also depicted the area of Nantucket Memorial Airport where Lochtefeld’s wallet was found, and the Chevrolet Impala allegedly rented by Toolan as he fled Nantucket on Oct. 25, 2004.

A college friend of Beth Lochtefeld, Leslie Costello, of San Diego, Calif., also talked about the brief romantic relationship between Toolan and Lochtefeld. Costello said she had met Toolan briefly when he and Lochtefeld had traveled to California for a business trip.

Although she admitted that Lochtefeld initially had strong feelings for Toolan, and even thought about marriage and children with him, when Costello was asked if the relationship soon changed, she said, “yes, dramatically, for the worse.”

Photo by Jim Powers

Bernadette Feeney testifies about the budding relationship between Beth Lochtefeld and Thomas Toolan, whom she introduced.

Another Massachusetts state police officer, Detective Lt. Ken Martin, also testified Tuesday about the murder scene, and described in detail all of the places where blood was found in the cottage. Martin said the pattern suggested the struggle commenced in one of the bedrooms, moved down a hallway, and ended in the living room where Lochtefeld’s body was found.

Two New York Port Authority police officers, as well as a Transportation Security Administration supervisor from LaGuardia Airport, all testified that Toolan attempted to bring a 12-inch kitchen knife on a US Airways flight bound for Nantucket the day before the murder.

Frank Pulizzi, a Port Authority police officer, was called to the US Airways terminal on Oct. 24, 2004, after TSA agents viewed a suspicious metal object wrapped in a blue rag inside Toolan’s jacket as it passed through an X-ray machine.

Pulizzi testified that Toolan said he was carrying the knife because he planned to have a turkey dinner with his sister on Nantucket. Another Port Authority officer, Sgt. Lorenzo Tyner, also said Toolan insisted that he had the knife because he was going to have a meal with his sister. Toolan told a different story to the TSA supervisor, Van Anthony Johnson, who testified that Toolan first claimed he needed the knife to cut a birthday cake, and then said he was going fishing on Nantucket and needed it to clean fish. During their testimony, Glenny produced the 12-inch blade that Toolan had attempted to bring on the flight, and asked Pulizzi, Tyner and Johnson to identify it, and then had it entered as an exhibit.

During Gilardi’s testimony in the afternoon, Glenny asked him to identify a number of items taken from the Hawthorne Lane cottage and Toolan’s rented Chevrolet Impala, which were then entered as exhibits in the case. The items included: the video of the murder scene; a bottle of Absolut Vodka found at the scene; the window shades of the Hawthorne Lane cottage; two kitchen knives found in the cottage; a section of the living room carpet marked with a bloody hand print; a pack of Winston cigarettes; bed sheets; an AC adapter; the door knob from the cottage; a kitchen towel and other items found in the trash at Nantucket Memorial Airport; Toolan’s clothes found in the Impala; and Lochtefeld’s cell phone which was also discovered in the Impala.

Medical examiner dominates Monday testimony

Monday’s testimony was dominated by a state medical examiner who described in excruciating detail each of the stab wounds suffered by Lochtefeld on the day she was killed. Dr. Richard Evans, a state medical examiner and a forensic pathologist, conducted an autopsy on Lochtefeld’s body Oct. 28, 2004, three days after she was murdered. In addition to detailing the stab wounds on her back and chest, Evans said Lochtefeld also sustained cuts on her hand that indicated she was taking defensive actions at the time of the assault.

Lochtefeld’s death was the result of a combination of blood loss and breathing difficulties caused by the knife wounds which penetrated both her lungs, Evans said. His autopsy, which included what is known as a “rape kit,” indicated Lochtefeld was not sexually assaulted before she was killed.

Photo by Vincent Dewitt

Beth Lochtefeld's brother Peter on the stand.

During Evans’ testimony, Glenny produced a short knife with an orange handle, presumably the same model blade that was allegedly purchased by Toolan at Brant Point Marine, and asked him if it could have inflicted the wounds sustained by Lochtefeld. Evans said he would first have to measure the knife, but said he would be looking for a blade that was about an inch wide, and approximately four inches long.

In other testimony Monday, Patrick Keegan, a friend of Toolan’s who he met during his time at the Hazelden drug rehabilitation clinic, was called to the stand by Glenny. Keegan testified about phone conversations he had with Toolan after his arrest on the day of the murder, when he asked Keegan to call Lochtefeld “to see if she was OK.”

Keegan also described Toolan’s struggle to remain sober and his numerous relapses, and said his friend was someone who could remain composed and function despite being heavily intoxicated. The day before Toolan allegedly traveled to Nantucket to find Lochtefeld, Keegan said he spoke with him on the phone and Toolan sounded “very depressed.”

The bulk of the testimony given in the afternoon was from state police officer Daniel Pratt, the crime scene supervisor for southern Massachusetts. Pratt opened numerous pieces of evidence that were enclosed in brown paper bags, and at one point held up the blood-soaked red shirt worn by Lochtefeld on the day of the murder.

Other evidence revealed by Pratt and Glenny included swabs from different areas of the Hawthorne Lane cottage and Toolan’s rental car that Pratt said tested positive for the presence of blood; photos of the crime scene; a cigarette pack found on a bed in Lochtefeld’s cottage; “vegetable matter” found near the body which Pratt said he believed to be marijuana; the sheath for a small knife that still bore the $13.95 price tag; and pictures of Toolan’s clothes that were found in the Chevy Impala he rented after he left Nantucket.

Pictures of an Absolut Vodka bottle found near a bush on the Hawthorne Lane property were also entered into evidence. On Friday, during his opening statement, Reddington told the jury of 13 women and three men that Absolut Vodka was Toolan’s drink of choice. Pratt also described a number of items that were found at the scene, including cigarette butts, the Absolut bottle, and kitchen knives found near the sink in the cottage, but when asked by Reddington whether they had been tested for DNA or fingerprinted, Pratt said he did not know.

Other witnesses called by Glenny included Nantucket Detective Sgt. Tom Clinger, who described searching the trash bags at Nantucket Memorial Airport where Toolan’s US Airways boarding ticket was discovered attached to a rag with red and brown stains. Clinger, along with other Nantucket police officers, also discovered Toolan’s rental agreement with Budget Rent A Car for a red Ford Escape – the same vehicle that was identified by numerous Hawthorne Lane residents during testimony last Friday as having been parked the wrong way on their street on the day of the murder. Paper towels with similar stains, and art slides believed to have been taken from the Hawthorne Lane cottage, were also found in the trash bags.

Several other witnesses called by Glenny gave brief accounts of their involvement in the investigation, including: fire chief Mark McDougall, who was an EMT at the time of the murder; environmental police officer Dean Belanger, who secured the red Ford Escape at Nantucket Memorial Airport; Nantucket police officer Keith Mansfield, who also secured the rental vehicle; Jim Richard, the owner of Parcel Plus and his employee, Deborah Saunders, who talked about receiving a package from Lochtefeld on the day of the murder; and Nantucket police officer Chris Carnevale, who drove with Peter Lochtefeld to Parcel Plus to obtain the package.

Motion to move trial denied

After the first three days jury selection last week, Connon rejected Reddington’s motion for a change of venue, which was immediately appealed to the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC). With the appeal pending, jury selection continued Thursday morning, and the 16 jurors were selected, but now sworn-in, as Connon awaited the decision from the SJC. The suspense was short-lived, however, as it was soon announced that Supreme Judicial Court justice Roderick Ireland ruled that the motion to move the trial off-island would not be heard by the full SJC.

The SJC also denied an earlier motion that had been kept secret to sequester the jury. With the jurors seated, opening arguments began early Friday morning.

In his straightforward, undramatic style, Glenny spent 26 minutes addressing the 16 jurors as he described how Lochtefeld’s life “came to a violent end at the hands of Thomas Toolan.” Glenny presented the jury with a detailed timeline of the events that led up to the murder and Toolan’s arrest in Rhode Island.

Reddington, one of the top defense attorneys in Massachusetts, used his opening statement to tell the jury that Toolan, despite his outward appearance, is a troubled man with serious mental issues.

Although he appeared to be the “master of the universe,” Reddington said, “Thomas Toolan was a facade. If you took a mirror and put it in front of Tom Toolan and had his image on that mirror, you could crack that mirror and it would fracture. It’s an inch deep and a mile wide. He suffered from many years with a defect, a mental condition. He’s had significant alcohol impairment, drugs. His drink of choice was Absolut Vodka right out of the bottle. Drink a fifth a day, not a big deal.”

Reddington compared his client to characters in the movies “Falling Down” and “A Beautiful Mind” who did not appear to be who they really were. He said Toolan had attended the Hazelden drug rehabilitation clinic where he was diagnosed as bipolar, and described the antidepressant medications he had been prescribed.

He finally described Toolan’s reaction to his breakup with Lochtefeld and said he was “the victim of the ultimate rejection. And that’s certainly no justification. But you need to consider his state of mind.”

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